1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to lighting devices and, more particularly, to a light-emitting diode (LED) lamp.
2. Description of Related Art
Lamp manufacturers must adjust the wattage of lamps according to clients' needs. As far as an LED lamp is concerned, wattage adjustment involves increasing or decreasing the number of LED light strips or LED chips. To accommodate the different numbers of light strips or LED modules, housings of different sizes have to be made, which however is highly uneconomical in terms of both production and storage. Not only must molds of various dimensions be provided for the different housings, but also it is necessary to keep a good variety of housings in stock.
Taiwan Patent No. I342376 discloses a lamp for illumination purposes whose heat dissipation unit (i.e., the housing) is formed by aluminum extrusion. The '376 patent also discloses a circuit board, a plurality of LED modules, a lamp cover glass, side covers, and watertight gaskets provided on the heat dissipating unit. As the length of the heat dissipating unit is freely adjustable by cutting during the aluminum extrusion process, the space required for receiving the desired number of LED modules can be easily obtained by changing the length of the heat dissipating unit, without needing to make additional molds.
However, as the LED modules in the afore-cited patent must be received in a groove of the heat dissipating unit, the provision of the LED modules is subject to limitations. In particular, if it is desired to add more LED modules, there is no other way than by increasing the length of the heat dissipating unit. Also, the number of rows of the LED modules is limited by the location and number of the groove and does not allow flexible adjustment.